Reading Rainbow breaks the $5 million mark

LeVar Burton speaks onstage at Engadget Expand NY 2013 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on November 9, 2013 in New York City.

Photo by Craig Barritt

With 15 hours left in the campaign, the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter, has breached the $5 million mark. An additional $1 million will now be donated by actor/director/writer Seth MacFarlane in a generous contribution to furthering the cause, allowing Reading Rainbow to reach 12,500 classrooms nationwide.

Reading Rainbow's campaign broke the record for most backers on Kickstarter according to Entrepreneur magazine. An incredible 101,187 backers raised well over $5 million in just 30 days, with the first twelve hours seeing the raising of the initial goal, and the campaign still has plenty way to go.

The unprecedented success of the project allows Reading Rainbow to move away from just a web based program, invading mobile applications and consoles, and with MacFarlane's generous contribution, can reach over 12,000 schools to help children in need for free.

As the project's stretch goal to $5 million has been surpassed, LeVar Burtonreleased a video message earlier today saying that for every $100,000 earned from here on in, backers would be allowed to choose from a long list, one story that LeVar will read on the show.

No one could suspect that Reading Rainbow would make such a tremendous comeback and achieve what it has here this past month, but it truly goes to demonstrate how the internet has grown whole communities in support of what matters. Through crowd-funding and asking the support of fans who grew up with the show, LeVar and his team were able to go far beyond expectations.